Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced new export control actions to prevent China, Russia, and Venezuela from obtaining U.S. technology for military purposes. This expands the “Military End Use/User Controls (MEU)” license requirement controls on China, Russia, and Venezuela, covering military end-users, as well as semiconductor equipment, sensors and other technologies. ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools The United States is mulling over new trade export restrictions for U.S. fab equipment to China, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. “Recent press reports suggest the U.S. Department of Commerce is exploring additional measures to limit Huawei's access to U.S. semiconductor capital equipment (SPE) by requiring chip manufacturing plants globally to procure license... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


AI chip boom or bust? The semiconductor industry is the most bullish about adopting artificial intelligence (AI), according to a new report from Accenture. Some 77% of semiconductor executives surveyed said they have adopted AI within their businesses or are piloting the technology. In addition, 63% of semiconductor executives expect that AI will have the greatest impact on their business over... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Autos


Products/Services Huawei Technologies is again delaying the public introduction of its Mate X foldable smartphone. It is unlikely the product will be marketed in the U.S., given the ongoing trade war. The official rollout now seems likely to come in November, in time for the holiday shopping season. Samsung Electronics has had its problems with foldable phones, yet those were due to manufactur... » read more

China’s Latest Goal—More DRAMs


China is once again making a concerted effort to get its domestic DRAM industry off the ground. Past efforts have fallen short or failed. This time around, it’s unclear if China will succeed, but the industry should pay close attention here. So why would China want to play a bigger role in the tough and competitive DRAM business? For one thing, the U.S. and China are in the midst of a t... » read more

Falling Chip Forecasts


It’s time to take a pulse of the semiconductor market amid the memory downturn and trade frictions with China. For some time, the DRAM and NAND markets have been hit hard with falling prices and oversupply. Then, the Trump administration last year slapped tariffs on Chinese goods. China retaliated. And the trade war rages on between the U.S. and China. More recently, the U.S. Department... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Market research In terms of overall IC sales, Intel has replaced Samsung as the number one quarterly semiconductor supplier in 4Q18 after losing the lead spot to Samsung in 2Q17, according to IC Insights. “While Samsung held the full-year number one ranking in 2017 and 2018, Intel is forecast to easily recapture the number one ranking for the full-year of 2019, a position it previously held ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 14


Radiation thermometers The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a thermometer that can measure radiation within a few thousandths of a degree Celsius. The so-called Ambient-Radiation Thermometer (ART) from NIST is a new type of radiation thermometer, which measures infrared radiation (IR) given off by objects without touching them. Measuring 60 centimeters ... » read more

System Bits: March 11


Cryptography IC for the IoT Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers report their development of a cryptographic circuit that could be used to protect low-power Internet of Things devices when quantum computing takes hold. [caption id="attachment_24144905" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image Credit: MIT[/caption] The research team presented a paper at the 2019 International Sol... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools and materials Applied Materials is expected to remain the world’s largest semiconductor equipment supplier in terms of projected sales for 2018, according to a preliminary forecast of the rankings from VLSI Research. Applied will have $14 billion in sales in 2018, according to the firm. Applied is the leader in terms of overall projected sales in 2018, followed in order by ASM... » read more

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